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The outgoing artistic director of New York City Center’s Encores! and Broadway producer Jack Viertel discusses the cast recording of the 2017 Encores! production of Cole Porter’s The New Yorkers (Ghostlight Records), Broadway, and more, with Joseph Planta.
Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:
I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.
The prolific Broadway producer and outgoing artistic director of New York City Center’s Encores! Jack Viertel joins me now. We’ll discuss a recently released cast album from Ghostlight Records, Cole Porter’s The New Yorkers. Mr. Viertel and the folks at Encores! produced this first major cast recording of the 1930 musical. With music and lyrics by Cole Porter, book by Herbert Fields, based on a story by Peter Arno and E. Ray Goetz. The show, an escapist musical with Porter’s blithe and clever words and music takes us to Depression-era Manhattan, and the madcap world of speakeasies, gangsters, and bootleggers. The show was produced in 2017 to great acclaim as part of the Encores! series. [Featuring a cast that includes: Cyrille Aimée, Clyde Alves, Todd Buonopane, Arnie Burton, Kevin Chamberlin, Mylinda Hull, Robyn Hurder, Byron Jennings, Eddie Korbich, Tam Mutu, Jeffrey Schecter, Scarlett Strallen, Tyler Lansing Weaks, and Ruth Williamson.] The production’s musical direction was by Rob Berman. Visit www.ghostlightrecords.com for more information. As well as the artistic producer of Encores!, Mr. Viertel is senior vice president of Jujamcyn Theatres, which owns and operates five Broadway theatres, the St. James, Al Hirschfeld, August Wilson, Eugene O’Neill, and Walter Kerr. Off the top of this interview, I asked Jack Viertel about the state of Broadway amid the Covid-19 epidemic. We taped this interview the afternoon of Thursday, 11 March 2020, when Broadway was still open. It wasn’t until the next morning that the Broadway League cancelled all performances in New York City. The Twitter handle is @JackViertel1. We’ll play “Take Me Back to Manhattan” in its entirety at the end of the show. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Jack Viertel; Mr. Viertel, good morning.
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